F: “Dig it! All of you fitting in this box is like seriously freaked up.”
Fa: “Nonsense! Why, there’s a whole universe in there.”
F: “Dude. There’s a universe in all of us.”
A: “Right on, professor Freakworth.”
Fa: “Get a job!”
- futurama

So. . How do you keep your hands warm on those cold, cold, cold winter paddles?  It took me forever to find something that worked.  Last weekend I forgot though. I had some false memory that SealSkinz Waterproof gloves actually worked.  Of course I paid for that bit of twisted history the rest of the day. . .

The problem with reading reviews (or writing them, for that matter) is that everyone’s experience is different.  I”ve read all sorts of good reviews for SealSkinz Waterproof Gloves for example. “I work in Search & Rescue. . .”, and on and on.  I’m glad so many people have had such great experiences with them.  For me though they have worked exactly like a pair of those old yarn gloves you had a a kid. They are fine for 5 minutes, then soak through, then freeze, let the wind through, then soak through again.  After just 3 or so hours of paddling my hands were in real pain.  To get a bit of feeling back in my fingers I re-set my hands in the gloves so that my fingers shared their heat. (Two fingers in one spot then two more in another, leaving two empty frozen glove fingers to freeze solid. If you look at my pinkie fingers in the pick above it may look like I’m being dainty holding my pinkies up, but actually there are no fingers in them and they are frozen!!

Funny thing.  We gave NRS more money the first year or two we were paddling in the futile effort to keep our hands warm and dry.  We bought about everything they had to offer and still have most of them filling a box in the shed.  It’s “Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth’s Paraboxical lost universe of the Neoprene people.” None of them really kept you warm and dry even with all those  “Extreme” names like “Explosion Factor” or whatever!   It seemed the best you could hope for were gloves or mittens that would keep you warm IF you never got wet, but that’s a little hard to do in a kayak. Besides if you were not going to get wet you may as well get gloves at a farm implement center.

Of course there is a solution to keeping your hands warm.  First you have to keep them dry.  A couple folks recommended powdered surgical gloves as a first layer. Then you can wear just about any waterproof labeled, non-waterproof glove or mitten you like.  This does seem to help.  For my part I choose a fairly small warm glove as the next layer.  The reason for something small is because it has to fit inside the secret weapon – POGIES!!!

It wasn’t until I broke down and bought some pogies that I knew I’d found a solution. (or at least the beginning of a solution).  The only thing negitive I ever hear about pogies is that some people fear not being able to get their hands out.  Well, most pogies have big openings that you can slip your hands right in or out of without a problem. Especially if you are wearing thin gloves, or nothing underneath.  Water does get inside them of course, but because the cut the wind effect to zero, your hands warm up quickly again when you wear a light glove underneath.  On an extra cold day I’ll wear the surgical glove as well.  So you’re asking where were my pogies over the weekend?  Well, someone else had those. . . I’d like to say I was making a kind sacrifice but honestly I just forgot my seal skins just didn’t work.

How do you keep your hands warm during a cold winter’s paddle?

Related Posts:

1. GTS
2. Everybody Pogie!
3. a matter of time
4. my hands
5. YaY, wAves!